Library & Information Technology Services » requirementshttp://sites.middlebury.edu/lis
Middlebury CollegeTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:33:33 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Criteria: What do we need for a LIS website?http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/22/criteria-what-do-we-need-for-a-lis-website/
http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/22/criteria-what-do-we-need-for-a-lis-website/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2009 15:54:03 +0000http://sites.middlebury.edu/liswebsite/?p=48This is a place to coordinate discussion about the criteria we desire for the LIS site. We’ve created two sections in the wiki to store this information:

1. How important is it for you to reach each of these audiences with your web content?
Students:
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important
Faculty:
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important
Staff:
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important
Alumni:
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important
Prospective students:
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important
Other (Who: ):
(Circle one): Not at all important X X X X X Very important

2. What is the most essential feature of your department that you want to convey most immediately on the web? Share URLs of content on existing LIS site, if applicable.

3. What other features of your department do you want to convey on the web? Share URLs of content on existing LIS site, if applicable.

4. Is there content from your department on the existing LIS web site that is outdated or irrelevant? If so, please share URLs if possible.

5. If you add content to the current LIS web site, please tell us how easy you feel it is to add and update content.
(Circle one): Not at all easy X X X X X Very easy
Why?

]]>http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/09/survey-question-ideas/feed/5Creating effective surveyshttp://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/08/creating-effective-surveys/
http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/08/creating-effective-surveys/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2009 17:14:16 +0000http://sites.middlebury.edu/liswebsite/?p=30Summarizing Markless on surveys:
A major pitfall of surveys is that they “often project designers’ preconceptions out to potential respondents” and thereby dilute the value of the responses. General tips: Give clear instructions for answering the questions! Don’t use library/technology jargon! Some types of questions we can use:

Closed questions: Questions with several answer choices (with check boxes), and with a catch-all at the end.
e.g. I will use the LIS website to:
Find resources X
Get technology help X (etc….)
Anything else? Please say what! X (with space for answer)Open questions: May best follow closed questions, i.e. “Why is this?”Simple checklists (with check boxes), and a catch-all at the end:
e.g. Why did you use the website today? Check all that apply
Find resources X
Look for information X
Get help from a librarian X (etc…)
Other, please say what! (with space for reply) XLikert scales: Highly likely/highly desired with boxes to highly unlikely/highly undesired
e.g. I will return to use the website in the future to do Xselect one box
Highly likely X X X X X X Highly unlikelyThurlstone scale: tracks agreement or disagreement with the question
e.g. I found what I needed on the website today X yes X noSemantic differential: quantitative measures of topics usually addressed through qualitative means
e.g. The library website isselect one box
Good X X X X X BadGuttman scales: statements arranged in sequence to gauge strength of respondents’ view
e.g. Shifting LIS communications to web based tools:select one box
Web based commun. will catch on quickly/completely replace current tools X
Web based commun. will require some adjustment, but will mostly work X
Web based commun. will be hard to sell, may or may not work X
Web based commun. will never work for our organization X

]]>http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/08/creating-effective-surveys/feed/2Focus Group & Survey Analysishttp://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/06/focus-group-survey-analysis/
http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2009/07/06/focus-group-survey-analysis/#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2009 15:32:23 +0000http://sites.middlebury.edu/liswebsite/?p=26Apology time: the information from the web redo project’s focus groups and surveys doesn’t translate to recommendations for this group as much as I had hoped. I think this is mostly due to the focus given during that process to the personal home page aspect of the project, which doesn’t directly map to what we’re doing. Also, I didn’t see any information from the LIS focus groups in those documents, which is where I expected most of the feedback about the LIS site to come from. Still, I’ve compiled some of the recommendations from those documents where I thought it was useful to our project.

General Recommendations

Search

Search for information is a problem. Some interest in the tagging content for search purposes.

Faculty comments: Library Access, several respondents mentioned library access and the need to maintain easy access to this site. Also mentioned homepage placement of library link seems strange. Add online journals such as those done by IPE and ISTY.

Staff comments: I don’t know enough about Websites to know how to make them better, and I definitely don’t know how things like wiki, RSS, etc. can improve a site, but perhaps they really can. I do know when a site is frustrating, though, and I have not frequently been frustrated when trying to find something on the Middlebury site.

2008_search_terms – Here’s a spreadsheet showing the top search terms broken out by month and categorized as coming from either internal or external viewers. I think the most interesting thing to note is that “lis” is the top search term for external visitors in September and October. What content on the LIS site is interesting to these people at this time of the year?

Based on how little of the overall information gathered in the web redo requirements process is specific to our project, I recommend that we initiate our own survey / focus group process for the LIS staff to give feedback on the site.